"You're sending your sister off to get married, but you're the last one to arrive. How ridiculous!"
"You didn't even bring any makeup, just a broken box. What a shame!"
"The younger sister is wearing rose pink, but the elder sister is wearing bright red. Are you trying to embarrass the bride?"
Lin Wanrou was already unhappy because she failed to become the queen. When she heard the ladies gossiping like this, she didn't know whether they were blaming Lin Jinghan or humiliating her for not being the legal wife and not being able to wear a bright red wedding dress to get married. She almost crushed the handkerchief in her hand and secretly wiped her tears with it, as if she had suffered a great injustice.
Lin Jinghan didn't want to pay attention to them at first, but she couldn't stand the constant chatter of these girls. She got annoyed and took out the box and slammed the table:
"This princess, the prince's wife, should wear red according to the etiquette of our dynasty. Do you think it's wrong for me to wear the princess's formal dress to support my sister?"
This was wrong. To put it mildly, it was wrong for her to wear red. To put it more seriously, it was wrong for our dynasty's etiquette! The ladies dared not refute, and one lady took the lead in smoothing things over: "Princess, what are you saying? You have good intentions and are here to support Wanrou, so of course it's absolutely right."
The ladies knew how to speak in a roundabout way, but they couldn't stand the impulsive temper of the young ladies. One of Lin Wanrou's best friends, who couldn't bear to see Lin Jinghan being wronged on her wedding day, jumped out:
"It's wrong to wear a bright red dress that overshadows the bride! So many of the ladies here are not wearing imperial robes!"
"That's right, you even dared to bang your head on the table and roar! You have no manners at all! Even if a pheasant flies onto a branch, it can't turn into a phoenix!"
These people were trying to curry favor with Lin Wanrou by stepping on her. Lin Jinghan sneered, opened the box her subordinates had used to slam the table, and pushed it in front of Lin Wanrou. "Wanrou, this princess has figured that the palace is different from the outside world, and money is needed everywhere. So I didn't prepare any gifts and exchanged them all for silver notes. These five hundred thousand taels will be your dowry."
Five hundred thousand taels! The ladies all stared with wide eyes and gasped, unable to believe it - all their dowries added together were not even worth a fraction of this!
"Is this really five hundred thousand taels?" Someone didn't believe it and stretched his neck to look at the box carefully.
"Can this princess falsely report the amount of makeup?" Lin Jinghan was unhappy. She pulled the box closer to herself, took out the banknotes, and counted them one by one for Lin Wanrou to see.
It was actually five hundred thousand taels! Lin Wanrou's heart was pounding. You know, when she entered the palace to become a concubine, the dowry given by the princess was less than two hundred thousand taels!
At this moment, she was both happy and jealous. She was happy that she got such a large sum of money, and jealous that Lin Jinghan was so favored by Sikong Zhan and was so generous!
"Wanrou knows that my sister loves Wanrou the most." Lin Wanrou was not in a hurry to take the money, but hugged Lin Jinghan's arm and acted coquettishly.
Lin Jinghan sighed, "It's also my fault that I didn't think it through. I only wanted to support you and didn't think of overshadowing you. In order to raise money, I sent someone to the bank early in the morning, so I came late. I hope you won't blame me for being late?" Look, she is just a country girl, so simple and kind!
"Of course not!" Lin Wanrou had just received a huge benefit. Although she knew that saying this would upset the young ladies and ladies who had just spoken for her, it was better to offend them than to turn against them after taking the money. After weighing the pros and cons, she had no choice but to offend them. After all, the relationship could be repaired later, because they would not really offend her, the imperial concubine, for such a small matter. But if her reputation was damaged, it would be difficult to repair.
Lin Jinghan wanted to hear what Lin Wanrou said. Finally, the five hundred thousand was worth it. She pulled Lin Wanrou and smiled even more happily, "Wanrou, I'm late. I can't make it in time to comb your hair. I'll just put this last gold hairpin in your hair."
After saying that, he took off a hairpin from his hair and put it on Lin Wanrou's head.
The two sisters were so affectionate that the other ladies sitting beside them were unable to get a word in and were extremely embarrassed.
After going through the final makeup process, the ladies rushed to find excuses to leave. The boudoir soon became empty, and Lin Jinghan naturally did not stay any longer, saying that it was a rare trip back home and she wanted to go check out her own boudoir.
It was her boudoir, but it was just the room she'd stayed in for the past three days. She'd hurriedly cleaned it because Lin Jinghan and her husband were coming back. Lin Jinghan didn't care, so she casually sat down, took out a book, and began to read, killing time. They only had to wait until lunch was over and Lin Wanrou was about to leave, so they could leave.
Starting from the morning, Lin Wanrou's dowry team slowly delivered the dowry into the palace, and it continued until noon. The scale was only slightly smaller than the wedding of the emperor and the empress.
The banquet started on time at noon.
The Prime Minister's Mansion was packed with guests, with men and women sitting on either side, and the atmosphere was lively with the clinking of glasses.
Chi Chi——
An inconspicuous little gray snake suddenly appeared from nowhere, and when no one noticed, it quickly came to Lin Jinghan and bit her!
"Ah!" Lin Jinghan screamed in shock as a piercing pain shot through her legs. She stood up and instantly fell back down. Then her eyes blurred and she fell limply...
"Ah!" The ladies sitting nearby were all startled, their faces pale with fear, and they ran away quickly. Some of them shouted in confusion, "There's a snake!" "Princess Jingnan was bitten by a snake!"
"What's going on? Where did the snake come from?" The guests around asked randomly.
The scene was extremely chaotic for a while. All the guards of the Prime Minister's Mansion rushed over. Before they arrived, Sikong Zhan had already arrived and picked up the unconscious Lin Jinghan on the ground. He first sealed the acupuncture points on her heart meridian to ensure that the venom would not spread quickly to her heart, and then tore open her bitten leg, which was already black and purple!
"Everyone, don't leave!" Sikong Zhan was furious. Someone actually dared to attack his princess right under his nose!
He sealed his heart meridian, picked up her legs, took a deep breath, and began to drug her.
Prime Minister Lin had already rushed over. Seeing Lin Jinghan collapsed, Sikong Zhan was furious. Before his master could even speak, the Prime Minister's Mansion was already sealed off. No one was allowed to leave. Even Lin Wanrou's dowry was impounded and prohibited from being transported. Knowing the seriousness of the situation, he couldn't let Prince Jingnan's men control the Prime Minister's Mansion, so he directed the guards to control it.
Some, fearing being implicated, tried to escape during the chaos, but were stopped. The Prime Minister's residence was in turmoil. In an unnoticed corner, a woman dressed as a maid quietly retreated.
Sikong Zhan's accompanying guards had already killed the snake with their swords and carefully packed it away. Seeing that the prince was actually disregarding his own safety by inhaling the snake venom, they hurriedly tried to dissuade him: "Prince, you can't do this! If you do this, you will also be poisoned!"
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